1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to technology for verifying interference between objects, and more particularly to an interference verifying device for verifying interference between parts, which occurs at an assembly, in a design stage of a device composed of a plurality of parts, and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
For an actual assembly of a device such as an electronic device, a method using elasticity of parts may be sometimes adopted at an assembly of two parts. At this time, these two parts are combined by applying force to one of them, and changing the shapes of projecting portions (elements) of the other. Assume that parts 1 and 2 are combined as shown in FIG. 1. In this case, the part 1 is inserted into the part 2 by pressing the part 1 to the part 2, and by simultaneously changing the shapes of the projecting portions 3 and 4 of the part 2. Consequently, the projecting portions 3 and 4 are fit into the cavities 5 and 6 of the part 1, and the parts 1 and 2 are restored to the states before their parts are changed.
For such an assembly of parts, interference checking is made by using an interference checking capability of a three-dimensional CAD (Computer-Aided Design) system in the state where the parts are assembled, and whether or not respective parts can be assembled is verified. Since the projecting portions 3 and 4 fit into the cavities 5 and 6 of the part 1 as a result of the verification, an interference state is not detected and it is verified that the parts can be assembled.
Additionally, with a recent three-dimensional CAD system, not the above described interference checking in an assembly state, but dynamic interference checking which also covers an assembly route is becoming possible with the improvement of the throughput of a processor. In the meantime, when the above described assembly of parts is made, the shape of one of the two parts is temporarily changed and restored to its original shape, so that the two parts are combined. Accordingly, it is desirable that a verification result indicating that an assembly can be made even in an assembly simulation with a three-dimensional CAD which can make dynamic interference checking.
However, since a conventional system for verifying interference between parts makes interference verification by recognizing each part to be rigid, it cannot verify whether or not an assembly can be made also in consideration of a changed shape of a part. Accordingly, even if an assembly is actually feasible as shown in FIG. 1, the parts 1 and 2 are recognized to interfere with each other. As a result, the verification only results in the disability of the assembly.
In the meantime, also a method for combining assembly simulation with part structure analysis maybe considered. With this method, a structure analysis calculation of projecting portions in touch is made when parts get into touch. Because the numerical calculation of the structure analysis is added to the calculation of the distance between parts in touch with this method, the processing speed slows down.
As described above, the conventional assembly simulation may sometimes evaluate an originally feasible assembly to be impossible, or requires a large amount of calculation time in order to obtain an accurate verification result.
An object of the present invention is to provide an interference verifying device and method for efficiently checking whether or not an assembly can be made by performing interference verification in consideration of a part shape change at a design stage of a device composed of a plurality of parts.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, the interference verifying device comprises a simulation unit, a storing unit, a deformation unit and a verification unit, and makes interference verification between parts in a device composed of a plurality of parts.
The simulation unit simulates a positional relationship among the plurality of parts by using shape information of the plurality of parts. The storing unit stores changed shape information of at least one part of the plurality of parts. The deformation unit changes a shape of the at least one part by using the changed shape information. The verification unit verifies an interference state among the plurality of parts based on a changed shape.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, the interference verifying device comprises a simulation unit, a storing unit, a deformation unit and a verification unit.
The simulation unit simulates a positional information of first and second objects by using shape information of the first and second objects. The storing unit stores changed shape information of the first object. The deformation unit changes a shape of the first object by using the changed shape information, when the first object comes in contact with the second object. The verification unit verifies an interference state between the first and the second objects based on a changed shape.